A biography that captures a life of adventure and military daring across the American West, Africa, Mexico and the Klondike follows a man, who, turning his friend Theodore Roosevelt into a listener and inspiring another friend to found the Boy Scouts, was endlessly willing to set off into the unknown to pursue golden prospects

Child of the frontier -- A pueblo and some puritans -- Wanderings and apprenticeships -- The Tonto basin feud -- Tombstone -- The tigers of the human species -- Hunting tigers with tigers -- A mine, a wedding, a change of plans -- To Africa -- To the frontier -- War in Matabeleland -- The king's spoor -- The shangani patrol -- Spears into pegs -- Cashing in -- War again -- The mouthpiece of god -- The klondike -- Chief of scouts -- Behind enemy lines -- Celebrity and hinterlands -- British east Africa -- Prospects and losses -- A president saved, another fortune postponed -- Hippos and spies -- Scouting for mines and for roosevelt -- Closing the circle -- After the bonanza